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John "JP"/voted off

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puddin:
John
30
Marina del Rey, CA
Professional Volleyball Player

biography

Born in Santa Monica, California, John "J.P." Calderon grew up in Marina del Rey, California. He received a full volleyball scholarship to California State University, Long Beach, where he played on a nationally ranked Division I Men's team. He graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor's Degree in speech communications.

Calderon spent five years as an assistant coach for the nationally ranked Long Beach State University Women's Volleyball team. He also coached many youth teams to medal at the Junior Olympics. In 2004, Calderon began a pro-beach volleyball career. In addition, Calderon is currently co-director and head trainer for the all-girls Mizuno Long Beach Volleyball Club. Calderon enjoys being a mentor to kids and hopes to one day open a sports facility for children. He is also dedicated to helping young girls receive college volleyball scholarships.

Calderon is an accomplished swimmer and has been outrigger canoeing since he was very young. He is a self-proclaimed fitness fanatic who loves to spend time in the gym, and enjoys lifting weights, running and hiking. Calderon also does occasional print and fitness modeling.

Calderon's mother passed away from breast cancer when he was nine years old and his father passed away last year from a brain tumor. Calderon hopes to work with charities and organizations designed to benefit cancer research.

Calderon currently resides in Long Beach, California, with his Jack Russell terrier, Frankie. His birth date is September 5, 1975.

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Texan:
will be one to watch

puddin:
Thanks survivor fever !!

J.P. Calderon's  Early Show Interview Transcript
(Transcript by James Barber for SurvivorFever.net - 10.06.06)


HARRY : Once again the latest episode of Survivor: Cook Islands came down to a battle of the sexes. The women of the Raro tribe surprised pro-volleyball player JP and spiked him right out of the game.

(clips)

HARRY : ...and JP Calderon is with us this morning. Good morning. You're laughing.

JP (shakes Harry's hand): Oh man, that was rough. (laughs)

HARRY : There are few times in the history of this show where someone was as surprised as you were in the episode last night. You had no idea.

JP : I had no clue. No clue at all.

HARRY : Who did you think would be going?

JP : I thought it was Stephannie. Everyone said Stephannie, so Stephannie was supposed to go.

HARRY : Right. Stephannie comes off of the challenge, they couldn't get the fire lit, and she says, "It's all my bad," kind of a real moment of weakness. Didn't it seem like, especially among the men, she was going to be the one to go?

JP : Yeah. Just in anything you do, if you admit defeat, it's kind of like you're opening the door.

HARRY : She even said...

JP : She even said it. "I'm the weakest link." She said it was a moment of weakness and she didn't mean it, but that was a moment of weakness and you can't show it, so I thought for sure, and that was a group consensus.

HARRY : So there she is (watches clip of Stephannie at challenge) hacking away at the flint, and they could not get the fire going. So at the actual challenge itself, you guys were behind a little bit, but by that point you were pretty much caught up, right?

JP : Right. I didn't actually want Stephannie to go, but that was the group consensus, so I was just going along with it.

HARRY : Very strong guy, very good swimmer, very good player. You were depicted in the show as being a little bit bossy, at least. There's a moment where you turn to somebody and say (takes snooty tone), "Would you get that machete for me? Could you pick that up for me?" And I thought, watch out, pal.

JP (laughs): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing how that came across. I really gotta say I worked really hard and unfortunately those moments were the ones that were shown. But I own up to everything I did, I don't back away from it.

HARRY : Was it a good experience?

JP : Oh, it was a great experience. I'm so appreciate and so thankful to Mark Burnett and the whole production. It was an opportunity of a lifetime; you gotta take it.

HARRY : Alright. Here's what I want to know, because of last week's secret scene...

(JP looks embarrassed)

HARRY : What? What? There looked like there was some kind of something going with you and Cecilia.

JP : I mean, come on, man, with all that curvaceous goodness...

HARRY : My goodness, that man is blushing. We may have to take a close-up here.

JP : Oh, man. I mean, she's the epitome of a hot, sexy Latina, so what can you say. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw her on the cover of every magazine out there.

HARRY : Alright. We're gonna take a look at this week's secret scene, because unbeknownst to a lot of folks, you were really having a serious problem with your foot. Let's take a look.

JP : Oh, man...

[(close-ups of JP's feet as he walks across beach)

JP (solo): My feet, they're not doing so good. They got pretty infected in both toes on both sides of my feet.

(Adam watches JP put leaves on his feet)

ADAM : You have it on that foot, too?

JP : The skin's just been coming off, and it's very raw. I can't even put my shoes on now without feeling pain. Gotta stuff it with leaves, gotta stuff my foot in.]

HARRY : Man. That did not look like it was much fun.

JP : No. It didn't. No.

HARRY : Did the leaves help?

JP : You know what, the leaves actually helped. It's pretty funny because I caught Stephannie putting leaves in her shoes. Everyone was jumping on the putting-leaves-in-their-shoes bandwagon.

HARRY : Do a shout out to your volleyball team real quick.

JP : I just want to say hi to everyone at (?) Long Beach. See you guys there.

HARRY : JP Calderon, thank you very much.
 
http://www.survivorfever.net/s13_es_jp.html

Texan:
Transcripts sound like a boring interview

puddin:
Survivor's J.P. Reveals Why He Is PO'd
by Angel Cohn

TV Guide - 10.12.06

On last week's Survivor: Cook Islands (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET on CBS), J.P. Calderon became the third straight member of the original Latino group to be snuffed out at tribal council. Some of his tribe mates said he was lazy, others found him too bossy, and some just pegged him as a threat, so they all banded together and voted him off, all the while letting him think they were going after Stephannie, the sacrificial lamb. TVGuide.com caught up with J.P. — a professional volleyball player who volunteers with many youth teams — to find out what he thought of the episode and the season so far.

TVGuide.com: Good morning! It sounds like you are over being blindsided by your tribe.
J.P. Calderon: I was over it. I'm an athlete. I really didn't play this game in the conniving, sneaky way it looked like I did. It was a game, but I looked at it as sport. When you are done, you're done. I just wanted to know the how, the when, the where and the why.

TVGuide.com: Did you have to wait until Thursday night to get that answer?
J.P.: Yeah. I thought it was really kind of stupid. I'm not really good at hiding my emotions. Strategically, it was really stupid, and I don't understand why that would benefit them in any way. My mode of thought was strictly efficiency. I forgot that it was an individual game, and instead looked at it as a team thing. I really wanted the best team to go into the merge. I was approached, but I didn't start any of these alliances. They made it seem like I was the diabolical schemer and that I was running the show. The whole Billy thing was Ozzy's [idea]. My whole goal, since it was divided ethnically, was to keep an original alliance with Ozzy, Cecilia and Cristina. I told Cristina that I would take her all the way if I could. They made it a gender thing last night, [presenting me as] "ruling the nest."

TVGuide.com: There were a lot of camera shots of you sitting around giving orders.
J.P.: That kind of bums me out because I worked really hard. That little perch where I was lying down, I only laid there like two or three times. Every time I laid on it they showed it.

TVGuide.com: You said it was a hard decision to vote Stephannie off. Why?
J.P.: Because I didn't want to vote her off. It was that she said, "I don't want to be here, I'm the weakest link." How do you argue with that? It was a group consensus. That is a legitimate reason for voting someone off.

TVGuide.com: I wasn't so surprised that the girls got together.
J.P.: I know this is going to sound bad, but this is where I think it is really stupid. Rebecca and Jenny really did this on an insecurity level, and I don't see where it is going to benefit them. I thought [the male alliance members] were stronger, not because of size and strength, but because they were presences.

TVGuide.com: Were you shocked that Adam and Brad voted against you?
J.P.: I was really sad that Brad and Adam and Cristina did not keep their word. I do have to apologize to Nate, because up until this [episode aired], I really thought it was him and Pavarti that constructed this, and Nate really kept his word and that was really cool. I'm intense and I have a presence and I think that is what makes me look like this diabolical Latin "Mwa-ha-ha-ha" kind of person. I don't back down and I don't lie and I'm kind of candid so I think that is what comes across as maybe being a leader. I draw attention to myself and I think that was maybe my downfall. In my [outside] world of athletes, men and women do not have a problem with calling you out and being in your face, and it is not taken in an offensive way. It is a pretty brutal group of friends that I have. I wasn't scared one bit how the media or the public was going to see me, I was more afraid of what my friends were going to do when I got home. I didn't realize until after the show that when you integrate with different groups of people — not races, but different people who don't live in your world — they might look at you as this mean person. In my world, I'm one of the nicest people.

TVGuide.com: There was a lot of speculation about why your tribe sent Candice to Exile island, thus saving her from tribal council.
J.P.: I was kind of involved in [the decision]. I thought Candice wasn't a presence, she was just a weak player and it would make the stronger players vote each other out.

TVGuide.com: If you had sent Cecilia, she'd still be around and aligning with you, instead of evicted.
J.P.: I didn't even think about it. I wish I had. It ended up backfiring. But if I had fought to send her, then everybody would know there was this Latin-Hispanic alliance.

TVGuide.com: What was your reaction to the way the tribes were originally divided?
J.P.: I loved it! For me it was an opportunity to represent this Hispanic-Latin community and culture. It was personal because, other than for my name, by judgment no one thinks that I'm Hispanic, [and I lived] my whole life where people would judge my ethnicity. When you are who you are, you want to be recognized for that. Living in Venice by the beach and playing volleyball doesn't help out. I thought our whole group was a way to show that we are not stereotypical: Billy is a heavy-metal guy, and no Hispanic is supposed to listen to heavy metal; Cecilia is a computer consultant, and we're not supposed to be doing that, we should be doing more blue-collar work; Ozzy surfs and I play volleyball, when we "should" be playing soccer; Cristina is "supposed " to be the one behind bars, and not enforcing law. I thought it was a great way to show that we can be successful in many other ways.

TVGuide.com: So what did your friends think of the show?
J.P.: They just made fun of me. They were all behind what I did, like the Billy incident. I never attacked him — I think Billy is a great guy, but I didn't like Billy the player. And if I had it to do over again, I'd do it again. I own up to what I do and I hate people that back down. The show touched on him being lazy, and me being lazy, and that was one stereotype that I wanted to break. We felt as a group that when we merged, he was going to defect because he made an alliance with all four of us. That's what bugged me. And the fact that he was such an avid Survivor fan, and knew all the strategies and techniques, that had me really nervous. I was like, "We've got to get him out," but I didn't want to be the jerk to bring it up. That was why we threw the challenge. I would have carried his workload all day long if I knew that he was trustworthy, because that is a vote. I couldn't care less if I have to work harder for everybody. I didn't look at this game as popularity, but how can I stay in it longer and get a strong group behind me.

TVGuide.com: What's next for you?
J.P.: I don't know. Mark Burnett told the whole group, "This will change your life and you'll find time to examine and see who you are and where you are in your life." I just let it go in one ear and out the other because I thought it was just crap. But he was right. I want to do something different now. I love volleyball and dedicating my life to kids and children. That was another reason I was bummed out that they made it such a gender thing, because I've dedicated the last six or seven years of my life to volunteering with young girls, so it is kind of ironic. But I want to do something different and where I can help people. I want to use my energy to do that.

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